Ch. 4, Sec. 1 Notes – Agriculture Changes the World

The Birth of Agriculture• Around 12,000 years

ago, Earth’s climate began to warm, plants and animals thrive

• Humans begin to settle around permanent food supplies

• Between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago (New Stone Age) people began to grow food on their own

• Agriculture is the raising of crops and animals for human use

Domestication• Domestication is the

process of training wild plants and animals to be useful to people.

• The first plants domesticated were wheat, barley, peas, and lentils

• Animals included cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and dogs

• All of these come from the Middle East

Catal Huyuk• Located in Southern

Turkey, Catal Huyuk is one of the world’s oldest cities

• 8,500 years old• Once housed over

5,000 people• Plaster homes built

close for protection• Religion focused on

the success of domestic crops, animals

Surplus!• A surplus is an

extra supply of something

• Having an extra supply of food meant that people could not farm and concentrate on other work

• Specialization is training people to do particular kinds of work

Specialization leads to trade• Because of agriculture,

people could now specialize and learn to make special goods and services

• Ex. People in Catal Huyuk learned how to melt and form copper into shapes such as beads, rings, or pins

• These goods and services attracted people to trade, or exchange goods, for goods that they wanted

These changes in community life marked the beginning of a new civilization, or a new culture that has developed systems of

specialization, religion, learning, government etc.